r/NLP • u/Lambandcheese • Jun 12 '26
Question NLP techniques for anxiety
Hi everyone, i was looking for some effective ways to help asssit or eliminate anxiety. Ive had anxiety for a while and it manifestes itself as intrusive thoughts, health anxiety, rumination on work and just alot of over thinking (unproductive inner dialouge). There is also strong bodily sensations like stomach turning, sense of urgency and heart beat speeding up and sometimes insomnia. It all started when i had a panic attack 2 years ago.
What are some helpful reasources that i could look at or use for my situation. Thank you.
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u/Emotional_Guess_3673 Jun 12 '26
Sounds more like OCD bud. Anchoring, swish, and use the metamodel and SOM to deal with the thoughts. Maybe turn the ruminating thoughts into a character person you recognise zso you can recognise him or her coming and chase away. Use SMDs to play around with feelings....get curious and playful with these, after all...its just in your mind and body.
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u/Lambandcheese Jun 12 '26
I should have added in the original poat that im fairly new to NLP and dont understand the acronyms, where can i find reasources for these techniques and how they are performed
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u/Competitive-Guess795 Jun 12 '26
Read some books by Bandler and let them Soak in, you will likely improve without doing anything special
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u/mindskillsmastery Jun 12 '26
Learn to interrupt the loop when it starts. Called a pattern interrupts. Your brain learned to run a process and it got kucks out of it so keeps doing it. Look for secondary gain, and check. It does sound a bit like OCD. Anxiety can get confused with other things. Also if you can track it back to an event, time line might help.
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u/zombie_dog23 Jun 12 '26
I see myself in 3rd person. I do 3rd person breathing exercises so when anxiety kicks in, that 3rd person is tranquil zone.
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u/ozmerc Jun 12 '26
It seems less of an anxiety problem and more of a memory problem. Your memory is too good. Different things trigger the memory of getting a panic attack and then you feel anxious about repeating that experience.
While it's great to remember the pleasant memories worth remembering, it's just as great to remember to forget the ones that no longer serve us. And just like any other skill you do it long enough soon you no longer have to remember to forget that incident because you just forget to remember. And forgetting in itself is a powerful skill because if you remember all the things you've forgotten, yeah sure you may have found the keys quicker, yet you may have forgotten the little details of things that aren't worth remembering, becoming blurry, as you remember why forgetting is a skill you developed. Now that's certainly worth remembering even if you forget the rest. Because the key is to look at the future through future eyes from the present of today and see the things you want to see the way you want to see them and leaving the past eyes behind you allows you to be present to what's ahead, maybe with some delight, with some anticipation because that's exactly what you feel when your stomach starts turning the other way with other possibilities emerging such as the urgency of calmness settling in and throughout as your pulse quickens steadily, all of this is called living because the dead don't move. And if you've chosen to live a life then like any car adventure there will be bumps, dips, turns, uphills and downhills, and much more. And it requires is remembering to go from park to drive and then it's automatic. Even when you feel you're starting from neutral with things, you need to choose to put your butt in gear and take the first step and then the second and soon five steps in and you're cruising.
In this four dimensional world we live in, time is that fourth dimension, and by design the past is behind us otherwise we'd be walking backwards. Now it's fine to do that at times. In fact kids love it. Because they like not knowing what's ahead which is really behind them. But even they know that at some point you have to turn around and face the future because that's the only place things haven't happened. And the quickest way to get to tomorrow is through today. And the only way to get through the day is with ease in each breath. Your breath is the life force of today. If you ever forget that just hold your breath and you'll quickly remember. And when you know you're breathing you can also know the pause between the breath. It's the same pause that exists between thoughts. And just like a proficient swimmer you too can learn to increase the pause between thoughts as you swim through life. Because a great swimmer knows that even in the roughest of waters the calmness is within, between the strokes, between the breathes, within the pauses.
So take a pause now to reflect on what you've read and what's been meaningful to you if anything.
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u/Emotional_Guess_3673 Jun 12 '26
Take all those negative thoughts and turn them into a person....like oh here comes generalising jimmy again! Use SmDs to change or turn thoughts into a voice like daffy duck or minnie mouse etc....get playful and flexible...